Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan wins second term

Wednesday

Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan won a second term Tuesday, defeating fellow Democrat Donna Patalano.

No Republican is running for the office so Ryan, 63, will be the only candidate on the ballot in November.

"Obviouly, this is a wonderful job," she said shortly after Patalano released a statement conceeding the race. "It was a hard-fought campaign and I am glad our message that I am the proven progressive prosecutor resonated across the county."

Ryan, who served as a prosecutor in the office before she was elected in 2012, won the race with 54 percent of the vote with 71 percent of the precincts reporting. The district attorney is the top law enforcement official in the county.

She was appointed to lead the 150-prosecutor office in 2012 by then-Gov. Deval Patrick and was elected to the office later that year, winning about 58 percent of the vote.

In a race where differences between the two candidates were small, Ryan touted her record on bail reform, restorative justice and jail diversion programs for people addicted to opioids.

In January, Ryan instituted a new bail program to prevent unnecessary pretrial detention for non-violent crimes. Since then, there have been 9,473 arraignments in Middlesex County district and superior courts and no bail was requested in about 78 percent of those cases, she said.

Patalano, 53, of Winchester, pledged during the campaign to collect and analyze data from prosecutors, courts and diversion programs to create a more transparent and just criminal justice system. The data would also show if diversion and other programs are effective.

“We have a broken criminal justice system,” Patalano, a former Suffolk County prosecutor and defense attorney, told the Daily News Editorial Board last week. “We do know in Massachusetts that we incarcerate black men at eight times the rate of white men.”

Patalano released a statement at 11:22 p.m. thanking the people who joined her fight.

"I am proud of the grassroots campaign we built to advocate for equitable justice and transparency, and accountability in Middlesex County," the statement said. "Though we came up short today, I am proud of the difference we made."

During the campaign, Ryan touted her efforts to battle opioids and addiction including getting addicts into treatment rather than putting them in jail while they await trial. She also created a task force to fight crime and deaths caused by the opioid crisis.

She called for reforms to prevent people charged with non-violent crimes from being held in jail while awaiting trial because they could not afford bail.

Ryan said she will work with Northeastern University to help collect and analyze criminal justice data. She acknowledged the system is inequitable. She also pledged to work with the state Legislature to get the required funds for the collection and study of data.

Anne Brennan can be reached at 508-626-3871 or abrennan@wickedlocal.com and on Twitter @AnneBrennanDN.